Nation Bloody Mary Day (Happy New Years!)

New Years Day. It should really be known as That Foggy Time After New Years Eve.

Luckily we have a little liquid gold to help us along: the cocktail classic, a Bloody Mary. I don’t know too many folks who make this their evening drink of choice, but for the morning hair of the dog it certainly does the trick.

RANDOM ASIDE NUMBER ONE: What the heck does “hair of the dog” mean anyways? Over to you Wikipedia:

It is a shortened form of the expression “the hair of the dog that bit you.” The origin of the phrase is literal, and comes from an erroneous method of treatment of a rabid dog bite by placing hair from the dog in the bite wound. The use of the phrase as a metaphor for a hangover treatment dates back to the time of William Shakespeare. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer writes in the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898): “In Scotland it is a popular belief that a few hairs of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences. Applied to drinks, it means, if overnight you have indulged too freely, take a glass of the same wine next morning to soothe the nerves. ‘If this dog do you bite, soon as out of your bed, take a hair of the tail in the morning.'”

So say, hypothetically, you had a few cocktails last night. The bloody Mary can fortify you before you have to go to that hypothetically dreaded brunch with the in-laws. I will suggest this classic recipe:

May be shaken vigorously or stirred lazily, as desired. Garnish with a celery stalk; a skewer of olives, pickles, carrots, mushrooms, or other vegetables; or even meat or fish (salami, shrimp, etc.) and cheese. Occasionally, pickled asparagus spears or pickled beans are also used.

Personally, I would say that pickled beans are MANDATORY. I mean, a girl has to get her veggies somewhere, right? My version benefited from the bottle of Stoli kept in my freezer: 🙂

SLIGHTLY LESS RANDOM ASIDE NUMBER TWO:

The best Bloody Mary I ever had was at a diner called Enid’s in a polish neighborhood in Brooklyn, where I dined on biscuits and gravy and grits for the first time, and where the highlight of the decor was a large sparkly golden camel. Good times!